Virtual communities are already abundant
within specific market sectors for example
in books such as Amazon.com,
apparel/garments (http://apparelex.com/
bbs/index.htm), steel industry (www.
indconnect.com/steelweb), nanotechnology
(www.nanothinc.com), and many
others. Firefly provides an interesting case
of virtual community building, adding
value to the community by building customer
profiles (www.firefly.net). Virtual
communities are also becoming an additional
function to enhance the attractiveness
and opportunities for new services
of several of the other business models
listed here (e.g. e-malls, collaborative platforms,
or 3rd party marketplaces).